Ideas & Society

By Andre Vltchek It is new and it is not new, but it is tremendously wicked and deadly – the latest type of coup the US invented and is now applying against Venezuela. Of course, coups and attempted coups are what could be described as the ‘West’s specialties’, and have been utilized by the U.S., U.K. and other imperialist countries against innumerable unfortunate nations on all continents. In Latin America,

by Ziad Fadel Don’t you just love the platitudes as they cloyingly envelop your senses with syrupy refrains about “the people”, “democracy”, “liberation”, “fairness”, “transparency” and the rest of the gobbledegook spewing out of the maws of professional hypocrites and liars? Gee, I thought the Americans would finally realize that their little frolic in Syria was a miserable failure. Even Britain, the world’s most renowned politically scoundrel-laden nation, should have

Two weeks ago the Zionist lobby targeted civil rights activist Angela Davis for her support of the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions movement (BDS). Following lobby pressure the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama canceled its annual gala at which Davis was to receive a prestigious human rights award. This created a huge backlash. The city council of Birmingham unanimously adopted a resolution “recognizing the life work of Angela Davis”. The Institute’s chair, vice-chair

by Dmitri Orlov Collapse, at each stage, is a historical process that takes time to run its course as the system adapts to changing circumstances, compensates for its weaknesses and finds ways to continue functioning at some level. But what changes rather suddenly is faith or, to put it in more businesslike terms, sentiment. A large segment of the population or an entire political class within a country or the

by Vijay Prashad On Jan. 1, 5.5 million women in the Indian state of Kerala (population 35 million) built a 386-mile wall with their bodies. They stood from one end to the other of this long state in southwestern India. The women gathered at 4 p.m. and took a vow to defend the renaissance traditions of their state and to work towards women’s empowerment. It is not an exaggeration to say

The raids in Ramallah are part of Israel’s systematic efforts to keep Palestinians in a state of uncertainty and siege. by Yara Hawari Over the last two weeks, the Israeli army has been invading the Palestinian city of Ramallah and conducting a series of military incursions which has almost entirely escaped international attention. On Saturday, we saw this escalate when they took up position in front of the Ramallah municipality and

By Wu Mingren Piracy is a practice that can be dated all the way back to ancient times. In the Mediterranean, pirates were not a major threat as long as they could be kept in check, usually by a strong navy. By the late 2 nd century BC, however, piracy became more rampant, more dangerous, and began to destabilize the Mediterranean, especially in its eastern part. The phenomenon continued into

Nation classified “flawed democracy” by Andrea Germanos A new index released this week offers a sobering look at how democracy is faring in the United States. According to the 2018 edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, the U.S. doesn’t even make the list of top 20—its demonstrably “flawed democracy” notching it the 25th spot. The ranking is based on 60 indicators spanning five interrelated categories: electoral process and